Abu Dhabi: The UAE’s new cycling team, UAE Abu Dhabi, have vowed to become the best two-wheeled outfit on the planet within three years as they prepare to participate in the 2017 Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Tour.
Only formed last month, they are the third professional cycling team in the UAE along with Al Nasr Pro Cycling Team-Dubai and Skydive Dubai Pro Cycling Team — Al Ahli.
But only UAE Abu Dhabi will compete in the 18-team UCI World Tour, which is the premier annual elite male road-cycling competition and which involves individual and team rankings.
Mattar Suhail Al Yabhouni Al Daheri, an Emirati businessman who is chairman of the new team, said on Wednesday that flying the UAE flag in the Tour represented “a dream come true”.
The team features 24 top cyclists from around the world – only one of whom is Emirati, Yousuf Mirza – to take part in the 28-event Tour.
UAE Abu Dhabi, who will be managed by the former Italian cyclists Giuseppe Saronni and Mauro Gianetti, were confirmed as the final team in the Tour line-up last month.
They will make their debut at the first event of 2017, Australia’s Tour Down Under, from January 17 to 22, and compete on home soil at the Dubai Tour from January 31 to February 4 and the Abu Dhabi Tour from February 23 to 26.
Speaking at a press conference at the St Regis Hotel on the Abu Dhabi Corniche, Al Daheri said: “We are looking forward to a great season and even better for the future. We will be looking to finish in the top five [this year] and our aim, [like that] of our leaders, is to be number one in the next three years with the country behind us.”
Six of the team’s riders were unveiled at the press conference, including their captain, Rui Costa, a 30-year-old Portuguese who has three Tour de France stage wins to his name.
Also present was Mirza, who is “very proud to be selected for the new team” and who competed in the road race at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“For me personally, it will be a great move to gain more experience and hopefully I will represent the UAE in the best possible way,” he added.
“Ever since I was a child, I was dreaming of being in a professional team and taking part in big races like the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia. The UAE will have more professional cyclists in the future and hopefully we as a team can achieve something.”
Key objective
One of the team’s board members, Khalid Saif Al Muhairi, said the former Al Nasr Pro Cycling Team-Dubai member Mirza was “the ideal person” to be the sole Emirati included given his experience.
“But for sure, one of the goals is to have more UAE nationals joining the team and getting help from pro cyclists,” he stressed, adding that the team had been assembled in “a very short time” since late November at a cost of €30 million (Dh115.12 million).
The team’s unnamed backers took over the former Lampre-Merida outfit, after their main sponsor TJ Sport ended their sponsorship deal, and secured a UCI World Tour licence last month before changing the name to UAE Abu Dhabi.
